Pokemon, GO: The power that's inside Gamification

Pokemon Go, the Augmented reality mobile game that brings Pokemon onto the fields and streets of this planet hasn’t officially launched in every major country yet. One thing has become very clear already, though. We all live in a Pokemon world.

It’s taking over social media, lunch breaks and commutes. New trainers of all walks of life, meeting up by chance at local poke-spots in the quest to catch ‘em all. While the stories of strange and horrifying situations like the woman who found the corpse instead of a Goldeen will crop up, what’s far more interesting to me is the social implications.

The ideas and systems behind Pokemon Go are not totally new. Many of the poke-spots, gyms and the basis of the game are almost air lifted from the last game developer Niantic created, Ingress. A game that birthed many of the ideas found within Pokemon Go, but had limited reach. Raise your hand if you knew what Ingress was before this came out? Anybody?

Already topping the charts in the App stores where it’s properly available, and tons of empirical evidence showing the boom available to anyone who cares to look, Pokemon hasn’t had this kind of reach since the 90’s. All off a concept largely lifted from a far more niche mobile game. This certainly speaks to the power inside Pokemon as a brand, and perhaps, further legitimizes Gamification as a concept.

IGN’s Terri Schwartz made a case for Pokemon Go as the greatest incognito exercise app available in a recent column, which I would have to agree with, but my immediate question is ‘why?’. The best answer to my mind, is Pokemon Go has given a secondary goal to pursue. One of the approaches to applying game design to an every day activity, or gamification, is setting a goal to pursue an end.

I must admit I fell to the lure of the tactic myself. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get nearly as much physical activity as I should. Pokemon Go, however, was the primary goal of me taking a walk today. Even though it ended with an unneeded stop to 7-11 probably undoing the whole thing, I went for a walk for no particular reason other than to see what kind of journey I might have on the way to becoming the very best.

This is a powerful, psychological thing, taking something mundane or even outside the realms of something one typically enjoys, like walking for me, and turning it into something engaging. I wasn’t forced into going outside by the app giving me an arbitrary order or schedule telling me it was now “work” time. The only difference between today, and yesterday when I did very little physical, is this small carrot. A little extra goal that made work into fun.

Reach is where the Pokemon magic comes in. Ingress had this magic, sci-fi thing going on, but without question, very few series can boast the cross-generational staying power and popularity of Pokemon. The power of gamification is still being figured out, but nobody can argue against the ability of popular media to influence cultures and bring people together.

Pokemon is one of the few with not only the brand awareness to pull it off, but also the in universe logic to make it work. The DNA of Pokemon, what captured our imaginations since they stormed the planet 20 years ago, is the concept that these creatures could live alongside us, found in the fields and streets, collected and befriended. Actually putting these creatures in our world, even in an artificial, augmented way? It’s tailor made to capture the imaginations of those who grew up with Pokemon and those who still are growing up with it.

Pokemon has had a social effect since the beginning as well. Though trading and directly battling isn’t (yet) part of the Pokemon Go design, we’ve already seen communities form around the game, cataloging Poke-spots, teams collaborating and conspiring to take down territory controlling gyms and just plain old running into each other as they’re out in the wide Pokemon world.

The exciting part, this is only the beginning. The nature of being a mobile app means we can likely expect updates for many years to come, and years of content to keep things fresh. Games and game design have been bringing people together for a long time. What a few very simple game design elements can mean to influencing things much larger than themselves, such as getting a population to reconsider staying on the couch, could change lives.

Its cool cause the Pokemon Card Game had record breaking sign-ups even before Pokemon GO took the world by storm. Pokemon has always encouraged people to interact socially whether it be link cable, or going to card events and battling it out with others.

Now its social capabilities have evolved into something greater via a mobile app, i cant wait to see how this effects Pokemon merchandise and Nintendo as a whole.

Awesome write up dark, it's a good read.

I personally think it's very overrated. It feels more like a simulation OF A game, rather than a game itself. Half the time, you're not even spent engaging in the gameplay mechanics, but rather looking to do so. It really doesn't make you any more "social" either with other players. In terms of versatility and optionality, the game is very linear and barebones. You either wander around looking for Pokemon to capture in multiplies to power up and evolve or you challenge the Gym. This all sounds fine, but it's all very simplistic, time-consuming and tedious; they don't include a Pokemon feature staple, trading. The "Battle System" needs to be revamped and more thorough and intricate; also, I'd rather battle and weaken Pokemon rather than just mindlessly hurling Poke Balls at it and hope that it sticks.

Also, another gripe I have is that you can't casually just pop open the App and play it when you want to unwind and relax, because you have to be moving across a geographic landscape. I like the idea of being active, but I don't enjoy playing my games on the go when I'm walking. It just doesn't feel natural or comfortable to me; it feels quite awkward and unsettling at times. Also, if you're in an empty open field, woodland area, or some rural town; you're not going to have access to many, if any Poke Spots. So the game's design mechanic is heavily biased towards urbanized areas where Poke Spots are in abundance, its easy to traverse the streets either on bus or trains etc etc. The concept is nice, but I don't think they thought it through thoroughly in a practicality sense. Most of their derivative thinking comes from how Japanese people play their games around their lifestyle; which doesn't always apply to the way we play games or how we can do so.

@BassGSX: Its actually not a game at all really, they call it a social app. They are coming out with the accessory that will help you catch Pokemon and not have your phone out at all times.

http://www.pokemongo.com/en-us/pokemon-go-plus/

The one problem regarding the exercise thing is Im seeing a lot of people casting lures at malls and just sitting instead of walking around

@xxgunslingerxx: That's the F2P aspect of this game. It's a mobile game and they monetize on it with consumables such as these.

My name is Lawrence! and does pokemon.Go has on nintendo ds?

Nice write-up darkspineslayer. I don't play Pokémon Go, and I don't even have a smartphone; but I really like how Nintendo brings new ways to game and their Quality of Life philosophy. I like how Nintendo uses established technology to make unique consoles and games. My wife and young daughter play, and I will be going on walks with them. Even though I don't play Pokémon I am glad Nintendo makes games that others enjoy too, and I feel that when they have these kind of successes they can flourish and continue making consoles and games in the future which benefits everyone.

Seems AR is meant for Pokémon. It's the perfect couple.

Did you read the EULA before agreeing to it? (end user license agreement)

-most people did not.

Reason I brought this up is that if you agreed to it, and you musta since youre playing Pokemon GO, it means that, among other things, Niantic might decide to use your house as a local gym!

-that's right, it's in the agreement!

Also in the EULA is that Niantic is not responsible for any harm that might befall pokemon hunters while they play the game, so if you get hurt (or even die) while hunting, Niantic aint gonna pay a penny.

It's very, very scary agreement, since it strips you of all rights, basically. So if youre playing the game, you might want to read the EULA through once again...